Saturday, December 8, 2012

Three quarters of the world's farmers
cultivate small plots of land, India is the land of marginal and small farmers,
the average size of farm land holding is 1.16 hectares ( 2.86 acres). 85% of
the Indian framers are cultivating the 70% of farm lands which are below two
hectares each, more than 60% of the farm produces come from the small farms
only. The productivity of the small farmers is the solution for growing
population food needs, the future of the Indian sustainable agriculture is
depends on the performance of these small and marginal farmers only. Most of
small farmers cultivate the farm land with the support of their family members
and local labor which the quality of the work is higher. They spend more time
on mulching, trellising, weeding, removing the rock stones, soil conservation
and building the irrigation systems which are a part of good agriculture
practices . They grow multiple crops and sow as soon as they harvest, small
farms have been the most efficient for sustainable and bio-diversified way of
agriculture.

India's land holdings average size has
been decreasing i.e. 1.16 hectares ( as per 2011 data) and at the same time the
number of land holdings are increased to 138 million which are caused by the
population growth and family subdivisions. Some researchers argue that small
farm land holdings' output is always low and their operating expenses are high.
I feel, the farm size is not a constraint for the productivity, small farms are
sustainable and the efficiency also more or equal to large farms. Numerous
studies have confirmed that there is an inverse connection between the size of
forms and yield per hectare, the smaller they are the yield is greater, the
contribution of output is higher for marginal and small farmers and they grow
high value crops like fruits and vegetables. But small and marginalfarmers have been facing lot of problems like
credit and Indebtedness, land titles and tenancy issues, low level education
and skills, globalization challenges and climate changes.

The Western model of agriculture is
being forcibly advocated by some agricultural policy analysts and economists which
is really applicable for only large land holdings. As per Indian agri profile,
we can't shift our small farms to larger farms that will cause a decline in
food production and also the unemployment of displaced workers that's going to be a big problem. It is very clear that the Western model of agriculture can't support our Indian
agriculture like heavy
mechanized,less
labor-oriented, chemical-based, high-input agriculture. Actually we should
adopt the Eastern model of agriculture which have been implemented in Taiwan,
Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and China. The far east agriculture
practices like experimenting with high yield verities, controlled use of
fertilizers, drip irrigation, effective use of manpower, multiple cropping and custom
made small farm equipments are exactly appropriate to Indian farm lands. Moreover,
Indian small scale family farmers can't afford to heavy farm equipment, extraneous
inputs and hired workers, so the Eastern style of agriculture is the way
forward for India.

While small shops, hawkers, farmers
markets are being wiped out and replaced with super markets and hyper malls, the
small farmers loss their customers. The large super markets always need the consistent
supply, competitive price, high quality produces with safety standards, this
will be a big challenge for the small farmers since most of the farmers deliver
their produces to local vendors and open markets.Supplying to large chain supermarkets is a great
opportunity to the small farmers, to confront the same, the government should
enact the collective farming by combine all small farm land holdings in to a
farmers' cooperative for mutual benefit. Under this model, the farmer will be an
independent share holder and collectively utilizing the supply chain/value chain
with their own operated marketing societies or private processors.(Just like
dairy co-operatives).

This is the time to reshape our Small scale
farm production and marketing systems since we are allowing the FDIs in retail
trade, to integrate with big chain retails markets the small and marginal
farmers should be strengthened with modern technologies and policy reforms.We wish the small and marginal farmers
avail the market opportunities for better prospects.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Achieving Food and Nutritional security is not easy task, we need to
try every option either genetically Modified (GM) or Conventional. The
food grains which are cultivated today are not absolutely wholly
natural, most of them are altered and hybridized by selective breeding
or chemicals or Viruses. We need to depend on modern technologies to get
bumper yields, drought tolerant and disease tolerant crops for growing
food needs. The government and the progressive thinkers should focus on
public understanding on Agriculture technology research.

I
am not against to the technology ...but especially in food crops part
we have some concerns about safety of human health and environment. We
already have so many conventional verities of food crops for centuries
which contain rich health & nutrition values. The agritech
researchers are mentioning that the GM food contains same nutritional
values as non GM, then why we need GM Food crop?! why can’t our
researchers develop new verities by hybridization and natural selection
instead of genetically engineering? Food security is not only providing
food for all but also the bio - safety must be ensured, the bio
technology has to develop the food crops without compromising safety
and regulatory aspects.

The BT Cotton was developed
and introduced in India in 2002 and still the farmers have mixed
opinions on the crop. Monsanto claims that the BT cotton plays a
beneficial role in increase of production and reduction of the costs of
cultivation. But the farmers are complaining that the cost of
cultivation has been increased comparatively with the traditional
verities and the yield per acre did not increase. We have reports on
livestock dying allegedly on consuming Bt cotton plants and Farm workers
are suffering with allergies including rashes, itches, and irritations
while working in GM crop fields. The mainstream scientific community
argues that all safety tests have been done but there is no systematic
research to address this serious problem.

In India,
there are a lot of apprehensions associated with GM foods chiefly
relating to the safety aspects both for the environment and for human
health. There are fears that novel genes and genetic constructs could
escape into the environment and create monster plants like weeds that
cannot be destroyed or new, recombinant pathogens like bacteria and
virus for which there are no cures. That is the reason there is a strong
appose on BT Brinjal and the protesters are claiming that the BT
brinjal is a threat to plant biodiversity, flaws in the data on the gene
inserted into the brinjal, no long-term toxicity and cancer-safety
tests were done which leads to kidney and liver damage. The technology
needs improvement and the safety aspect will have to be tested far more
rigorously before it can be declared that GM crops are indeed a safe
source of food.

The GM companies should focus their
R&Ds on the crops like drought tolerance, salinity tolerance and
alkaline tolerance. Farmers will need to grow crops in locations
previously unsuited for plant cultivation since most of the
cultivatable lands have been converted to non agriculture purposes.
Creating plants that can withstand long periods of drought , high
salt/alkaline content in soil will help people to grow crops in formerly
inhospitable lands. Ethanol based Transgenic Sugarcane, maize and sugar
beet crops have to be developed for support Bio fuels instead of fossil
fuels. Genetically Engineered Tobacco plants are required for medical
use. Modified Subabul, Eucalyptus and Bamboo plants are required more
tonnage for paper production. We expect the crop science or
agriculture research outputs should be safe for human health and
environment. The safety tests and systematic research should be
conducted under regulatory measures before launching any crop which is
genetically engineered. I am against to hunger and poverty, not to the
technology.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Recently the Tobacco Institute of India has given awards to the
tobacco farmers on their achievements. I met some of the farmers who
attended the awards function , in casual chat one of the prospective
farmer mentioned that he doesn't know what FCTC (Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control) means until he attend the award ceremony. Most of
the tobacco growers don't know about the FCTC which was ratified by
Indian government in 5th February ,2004. The world Health Organization (
WHO) adopted the FCTC in May 2003 to reduce the tobacco consumption to
protect the global public health and this is one of the most quickly
ratified treaties in United Nations history. FCTC formulated the
policies for the member countries to adopt the better strategies for
tobacco control, those might be mandatory and some of them are
provisional.

India is so active in FCTC treaty and was
the one among the first signatory countries. Even prior to FCTC, India
has been working on tobacco control by several legislations like COTPA
(Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act) i.e. ban on smoking in
public places, ban on underage sales, prohibiting the tobacco sales
within 100 yards of schools and hospitals and restrictions on tobacco
advertisements & sponsorships. Proactively our Union Health
Ministry proposed that all new films have to flash a static anti-tobacco
message during a smoking scene. The government initiatives are not
only with consumption part but also in production and distribution,
government is enforcing the heavy taxes to control the tobacco
consumption .The tax on tobacco products in India is are complex and
vary for tobacco products, cigarettes taxes are calculated by the length
and the process of manufacturing which accounts approximately 38% on
retails price and the Bidis (tobacco rolled in a leaf) are taxed very
low averaging 9% on retail price.

India is the third
largest producer and second largest group of smokers, over 120 millions
of Indians smoke which counts 10% of the total world's tobacco smokers
and over 250 million people across the country use tobacco products like
gutka, cigarettes , bidis and other kinds. Tobacco will be responsible
for 13% of all deaths in India, it counts around 900,000 deaths per
year. Worldwide, every 1 in 10 adult deaths are caused by tobacco and
it kills more than 5 million people per year. The World Health
Organization warned that if the same consumption patterns continue, more
than 8 million people will die per year by 2030. Everybody has the same
questions, why farmers are growing tobacco even that is harm for human
health and why governments are allowing tobacco cultivation even lot of
health organizations and social groups are advocating a ban on tobacco.
Tobacco cultivation is a part of Indian agriculture system, it is
legally cultivated agriculture crop and globally trading commodity.
Tobacco is the best cash crop among all cash crops… in terms of high
value returns and suitable to most environments, on top that it’s a
labor intensive crop which helps to improve the rural employment .Indian
Tobacco Industry is providing livelihood to more than 25 million people
in the country, the tobacco contribution to India’s GNP is about 10%.

Consuming
tobacco is a fatal addiction and social problem, it keeps the health in
hazard. The problem should be dealt with public awareness, anti smoking
campaigns by government and other advocacy groups have not much
influenced the tobacco farmers neither threaten to tobacco cultivation
nor encourage them to leave the crop. But the FCTC regulations are
simple forcing ban farmers from cultivating tobacco. Indian government
never consulted and asked the tobacco farmers' opinion before ratifying
the treaty in 2004, it's an autocratic decision. The Indian tobacco
farmers were not against to our national tobacco control law like COTPA
or any legislation which prohibits tobacco consumption, they do concern
about public health but imposing FCTC regulations on tobacco farmers
without consulting them is unacceptable, FCTC planned to force all the
governments to keep the tobacco farming industry in jeopardy. Indian
farmers are opposing several articles of the FCTC like 9 and 10 which
are dealt with regulation, testing, measuring and disclosure of
contents.FCTC proposals will affect our
tobacco farmers and industry, more than 30 million of Indians livelihood
will be devastated. Especially in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, tobacco
growing is the main source of livelihood for farmers and moreover India
is the place where the tobacco grow year-around. AS per FCTC articles
17 and 18, the government should provide technical and financial aid
assistance for economical transition to all stake holders whose
livelihoods are seriously affected as a consequence of tobacco control
programs, but after so many research and field trials they identified
that it takes so many years. However, now the working group abandoned
its original mandate and came out with new set of recommendations like
restrict/stop all financial and technical support for tobacco farming;
mandate the seasons when tobacco can and cannot be grown; limit, then
reduce, the land area where tobacco can be grown, dismantling all
tobacco governing bodies and reduce tobacco production. These
irrational destructive proposals are going to be destroy the million
lives of tobacco dependents by not offering economically viable
alternative crops and livelihood.I think the FCTC treaty is autocratic and
imposed one, because the veto powered nation- United States of America
haven't ratified the same and other large tobacco production countries
like Argentina, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Indonesia were never signed the
treaty. If India implements these guidelines, then non signed countries
may dump their tobacco products ,they will increase their production and
it may lead to contraband trading, then Indian tobacco farmers
livelihood will be in trouble and the Indian economy will go down i.e.
almost Rs.13,500 crore of excise revenue and Rs 4,160 crore of export
revenue. I am not against to tobacco control, government is spending
millions of tax payers' money towards public health and creating
awareness on tobacco consumption risks but I request our Indian
government to refuse these unreasonable, imposed FCTC proposals and
think in a pragmatic approach to help tobacco farmers for their smooth
economic livelihood transition.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

The well know basic economic principle for the marketable produces
is : Cost of production + considerable percentage of margin= Price of
the product. But this basic principle is not applied to Indian farmers,
their farm products are sold at horrible losses. The government and the
government advisory commissions are forcing the farmers to sell their
produces with very less prices which are not even matched to the cost of
production. The government fixes the Minimum Support Prices ( MSP) for
major agriculture commodities by the Commission for Agriculture Cost
and Prices (CACP) recommendations. The CACP considers various valid
points to determine the support / remunerative prices for the
agriculture produces. Nevertheless, the CACP has not been recommended
the remunerative price for farmers from past ten years.

Based
on the " Cost of the production theory of value", each and every
product or service price can be decided by the cost for producing the
same. CACP has been considering the Cost of Cultivation (C2) while
assessing the agriculture commodity prices, but there is some serious
flaws in calculation criteria which causes the underestimate of actual
costs and moreover the MSP doesn't even equal to the actual Cost of
Cultivation. As we know that how the input costs have been increased
from past few years such as fertilizers, labor cost, diesel, fodder and
cattle feed. The average labor wages have increased by 75% in past three
years and the fertilizers are more than doubled. But the CACP has
announced the MSP hikes for 2012-2013 crops are ranging from 16% to
53% on 2008 -2009 data. CACP has been using the old data ( 2008-2009
)for assessing the current crops support prices and also the data of
2008-2009 itself had contested by the farmers organizations in terms of
number of samples and calculation mechanism.CACP
usually depends on Department of Economics and Statistics (DES) of
Department of agriculture for data collection and the data contains the
information of Area/Production/Yield (APY). But there are some
controversies on interpretation of the data among the determining of
MSPs and other purposes like calculating GDP, planning commission and
economic indicators. Sometimes CACP also collects the data on its own
but it's not collecting ample number of samples and also while computing
the cost of production there is no consideration for crop insurance,
marketing and transportation cost paid by the farmers. Still, the CACP's
recommended MSPs are faulty and unfavorable to the farmers and they are
losing Rs.240,000 of crores every year for just because of
underestimated MSPs by CACP.All farmers
organizations have been reiterating for National Commission on Farmers
recommendations for fixation of the remunerative price i.e. C2 +50%
profit margin on C2, but the CACP is computing the prices on the
obsolete data of 2008-2009. It has to take previous year data for
computing the consecutive year prices and it should consider all
prescribed 12 factors while formulating the price recommendations. Not
only 12 aspects but also other issues like inflation, cost of living for
farmers, and losses due to import - export policies. However, Indian
farmers need a revived CACP since it fails to protect their best
interests, it should be dismantled and restructured with new terms and
references.

Friday, June 1, 2012

India uses low quantity of
fertilizers against the global average, the
monsoon plays major role on consumption pattern in India, a good
rainfall makes higher usage of fertilizers for enhancing crop yields.
Due to Euro zone crisis
the world markets are volatile, Indian
economy also experienced the same
negative impact. India has been depending on imports for its major soil
nutrient needs and the Rupee value has gone down with new record level
so the
fertilizers prices are expected to raise. The components for making
fertilizers
like naphtha ,fuel and natural gas prices
have been increasing year by year and if the fuel price increases,
invariably
it is going to affect on fertilizer prices.

Indian farmers are already suffering from high input costs and the steep increase in fertilizer prices are going
to be more burden for them. India imports a quarter of urea, 100% of potash and
almost 70% of DAP (Diammonium Phosphate). DAP is
widely used by Indian farmers, the price has gone up to Rs.987 per bag( 50
Kilos) and it is expected to be
increased more with rupee dip. similarly
Potash has increased to Rs.720 per bag( 50 Kilos). Not only the
fertilizers and also the pesticides,
insecticides and herbicides prices have
affected by rupee slide. Acetamiprid (ACE) and Imidacloprid
(IMI) are widely used pesticides in India, their prices have also increased by
Rs.100.

The
price of fertilizers and pesticides may increased by 30% due to rupee
value
decline and subsidy cuts. The government
has decreased the subsidy on DAP and
other NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash) fertilizers by 27% since
April
2012, the subsidy for DAP was Rs 19,763 in last fiscal year now it is
Rs 14,350 per tonne similarly the subsidy for MOP (Muriate of Potash)
has been fixed at Rs 14,440 per tonne against
Rs 16,054 last fiscal. The subsidies for nitrogen, phosphate and potash
nutrients have also been lowered by 11.6%, 32.6% and 10.3% respectively.
The
raw materials for producing fertilizers prices have also increased due
to rupee
depreciation. so invariably, the kharif crops going to be very expensive
for farmers with raised input costs.

Every Farmer need subsidies since they have been incurred
losses without remunerative prices, non availability of credit ,high input
costs and many more adverse reasons. If the government feels the subsidy on
fertilizers must be reduced then it should
allow the farmers to fix the prices for their produces on their own like other
industries and also the government should not intervene in agriculture exports. The UPA
government has randomly increasing the petrol prices to save the Oil marketing
companies from their losses, why can't the government do the same thing for the
farmers by fixing the remunerative
prices for farm produces. In fact, the government reduced the fertilizer subsidies as part of their austerity measure to match
the fiscal deficit but the government is
claiming that the reduced subsidy funds are going to be diverted to organic
manures and bio fertilizers. Actually the organic farmers are very less,
organic farming is picking up but
reducing the subsidies on chemical fertilizers are ridiculous since 90% of the
farmers are depend on the same.

Ministry of chemicals and fertilizers has intended to give the subsidies directly to the
farmers, it's a welcome move because the retailers are misusing the subsidies
and it's not reaching to the real beneficiaries. At this point of time the government officials
should ensure the fertilizers are sold
at MRP prices and most of the retailers might have the old stocks which they
got with old prices, they are trying to sell the same stock with new increased
prices, the government officials must control the traders not to sell with increased
prices. At least it will give little relief to farmers against the increased
input costs.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tobacco is one of the best cash crop in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and some parts of Orissa and more than 200,000 registered growers are cultivating tobacco. Why do farmers prefer tobacco is.. it's a non perishable, yield & value is high per acre and easy to market. India is one of the biggest producer of Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco which is used for cigarettes all over the world. Tobacco board estimated crop size for this year (2011 and 2012) is 264 millions i.e. Andhra Pradesh at 162.5 million kgs and Karnataka at 101.3 million kgs. Tobacco contributes a significant amount to the national economy , the government earned central excise revenue of RS 13,500 crore by selling cigarettes and foreign exchange of RS 4,163 crore from exports of tobacco and tobacco products during 2010-11.

Andhra Pradesh is the biggest producer of the FCV quality tobacco in India. Despite natural disaster "Thane" in this year, the tobacco yields are better but the threat is with price decline. The tobacco prices were peak in 2008- 2009 i.e. Rs.115/ kg and the price came down to Rs.90/kg in 2010- 2011 and now the average price is lesser than last year price. Farmers are in misery and inescapable position to sell their crop with lesser price, their distress is not only with the fallen price but also with increase of associated costs of plantation to packing. The labor wages have gone up for grading & bundling, and the barn fuel ( firewood & char coal) cost also increased. Farmers are not getting remunerative price and the net realization is negative by calculating all these expenses, farmers have no choice to switch to other crop since they don't have proper irrigation facilities.

Tobacco board is the sole regulator of tobacco crop, it has right to fix the crop size every year and it arranges the convention every year with traders and growers to discuss various issues on tobacco trade. The tobacco board auction system is excellent and appreciable but the Board is not strong enough to control the traders. Ironically, Tobacco board enforce their rules and regulations on miserable farmers by imposing penalties on excess production and others, but it never tried to get the better price for farmers by negotiating the traders. Board shows over enthusiasm to protect the traders' interest in the name of foreign exchange and excise revenue. Since GOI signed in treaty with World Health Organization's Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) , the tobacco board act as a nodal agency to reduce the crop size with its registered growers and it can encourage to alternative crops but it should not suppress the farmers' right to get the better price.

A very few companies are operating the tobacco trade, the major players are ITC ( India Tobacco Company) , GPI ( Godfrey Phillips India) and some others. Traders are bidding very lesser quotes by convincing various deceptive reasons like International market has excess stocks , don't have enough export orders, price cut due to competition international markets, Non tobacco materials in the tobacco bundles and tobacco is not properly graded by the farmers. Of course, the traders are misguiding the farmers by all these unjustifiable reasons..... though the global market stocks are huge, the demand for India grown tobacco is high since it's the best for filter cigarettes. Some of the traders are making direct unauthorized purchases from the farmers by offering less price, Tobacco board has failed to curb such illegal purchases since it doesn't have proper vigilance on non auction trading.

The tobacco cartel make deals with each other traders and they fix the market price internally and control the market without offering remunerative price to farmers, especially the trade is under control of two companies i.e. ITC and GPI . ITC is the most powerful conglomerate and market leader in Indian tobacco trading and cigarettes manufacturing, It has diversified into other industries such as hotels, FMCG, Lifestyle stores, paper and commodities to continue its dominance and market share. Surprisingly, the RTI query has revealed that the government has equity in tobacco companies, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has Rs.3500 crores of investment in ITC. If the largest state owned corporation involved in a tobacco company, the company will definitely get the competitive advantage over its competitors and it receives special treatment for its own initiatives. ITC may influence the government to protect its business interests, it's a complex of involvement. Tobacco farmers have been protesting and denouncing the Monopoly Trade Practice of ITC , no action taken by the government so far and moreover the UPA government has banned the FDIs in tobacco industry and this is nothing but protecting the dominance of existing players like ITC, GPI and VST . Department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has to review the policies once again and they should liberalize the policies to allow FDIs in tobacco industry.

However, The frustrated farmers have been demonstrating their agony and unrest in various forms i.e. boycotting the auctions and staging the dharnas, but the traders are not flexible to pay the remunerative price. Government of India and State government need to take necessary steps to help the tobacco farmers in this crisis situation, the required price hike should be at least 15% over than last year since the cultivation expenses were gone up . The Government has to finance the State Trading Corporation of India or any Tobacco growers’ societies to make purchase the tobacco with better price and if possible the central government should allot some bailout fund to the tobacco board which can compensate to the distressed tobacco growers . I strongly support the FDIs in tobacco trade because the farmers will get fair price among the competition of traders and manufacturers. If the Government doesn’t curb the traders’ deceitful practices, then the tobacco will be UNHOLY crop for farmers.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Over 60% of Indian agriculture is dependent on rains which is very complex, risk prone and low productivity. The problems with rain fed farming is multifaceted; difficult to adopt modern technologies, uncertainty in output and low income which affect to livelihood of farmers that leads to rural poverty and suicides. Being an agriculture dominant country India should have proper irrigation systems to distribute and manage the river water and floods. Supreme Court of India has impelled the mega project which will link the major rivers in north and south for optimum utilization of water. As we know that our Indian farmers have been suffering with crop losses due to droughts and floods and also their villages were destroyed in floods. The Inter- linking of rivers (ILR) project assures to manage the water from surplus to lacking and mitigates the flood havoc. The project expands the irrigated land that can increase the food production and able to feed 1.20 billion of Indians. The increased irrigation land will help to adopt modern technologies in agriculture for higher yields.

The river linking project involves on Himalayan and peninsular rivers, the design consists of 30 proposed links i.e. 16 in Himalayan component and 14 in peninsular component. The grand design of ILR project will add 40 million hectares of irrigated land to India, generates the 34000 million kilowatts of electricity and the navigation controls the floods and mitigates the droughts. Government of India (GOI) has been implementing the traditional methods like small water tanks, ponds, watershed schemes and lift irrigation schemes which are helpful… but very little, so India needs a durable river management system to fulfill water needs. As we know that how the city dwellers of Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are in fresh water stress for their daily needs and at the same time 60% rainwater is going waste in seas. To avoid the wastage and proper management of water can be possible through river and canals channeling only.

There are many positive results with ILR but the other end the project is being criticized on various reasons and making controversial for their vested interests and political prospects. They are arguing on environmental, ecological consequences, international disputes and resettlement & displacement of the project- affected people. We have new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill to accomplish such issues and India need to learn from our neighboring countries like China, Pakistan and Brazil, how they completed the prestigious dams successfully for their national interest. Interlinking the rivers is an economic development process; most of the countries are constructing dams and channels for their national benefit and progress and ILR is same kind for our national energy, irrigation and drinking water needs of growing population. Population displacement and resettlement is a tough task, the projects disrupts the lives and lifestyles of the people who live in the affected areas. However, the government authorities must focus on methodologies and processes to involve all stake holders and civil societies to smoothen the process.

The arguments of the organizations who are opposing this project are baseless and vested, all these organizations are urban based, non-farm communities and they can’t understand the farmers’ perils. They live in air conditioned rooms, using magnificent and spectacular words to grab the public attention, they are failed to understand the farmer’s agony on water scarcity (so many farmers committed suicides for their crop failures due to drought & floods and unable to repay loans they had taken to drill bore wells) The can’t understand the perils of rural women who walk miles together to get bucketful of drinking water. Some of the political leaders are confusing and exasperating the people by giving the false interpretation i.e. this project is going to divert their own water to other areas. But all these arguments are unjustifiable and their electoral prospects only, because the ILR is a national project and this is for entire nation’s benefit and progress not for particular state.

In spite of these critiques and arguments, the ILR project is the only option to fulfill the water needs of growing population. India has been experiencing the floods & droughts and the sufferers used to get ex gratia payments from Prime Minister Relief Fund or Chief Minister Relief Fund, etc. from past 60 years. Instead of that if this gigantic project is completed… all disasters can be prevented, but it requires lot of money and time. As per Millennium Development Goals by UNDP, safe drinking water and sanitation is a human right and our central government should not consider the political limitations for water resources. The central government should take the control on inter-state rivers, the project must be included in five years plan as top priority, make involving all stake holders efficiently and this should be completed in a time bound manner.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Water is one of the five elements, Water is life and everything. The availability of water is drastically decreasing and so many developing countries are facing water crisis. There is a connection between water, poverty and hunger; developing countries in Asia and Africa are facing water stress, malnourishment and poverty, coincidentally these countries are closely with arid and semi-arid ecosystem. Urbanization has been increasing in developing nations which push to change in water consumption pattern and demand for water has been increased. The United Nations' FAO states that by 2025, 1.9 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.

The main share of water is taken by agriculture which accounts globally 70%, rain fed agriculture is most common method and some of the countries have been using massive ground water for agriculture. The population growth usually increase the demand for water, we already more than 7 billion and by 2050 we will be 9 billion, we need to face heavy water scarcity especially in agriculture production. The main task for developing countries is to utilization of water resources productively and efficiently i.e. How to produce more food with less water, how to recharge the ground water aquifer, how to reuse the waste water for agriculture.

Over 60% of Indian agriculture depends on rains, monsoons are very important to Indian economy, if the predictions go wrong or monsoons fails the GDP share of agriculture will be negative. Uncertainty of the monsoons and drought conditions make the farmers’ life miserable. To overcome rain- fed farming and drought, our Indian farmers are investing heavily on tube wells and high powered motor pumps… but water tables are dropping dangerously and the farmers are being dragged in to debt traps. Lot of irrigation projects were commenced by the state governments which are still under construction, huge finance investment must be required to complete these ongoing projects. According to Indian policy the Irrigation is a state subject, the state governments don’t have enough budget to complete them unless the financial support given by central government. As of now 400 irrigation projects are pending in nationwide.

Government of India should take preventive measures in agriculture to face water stress, since most of the Indian population depends on agriculture and need to feed 1.20 billion people. Recently Supreme Court of India has impelled the mega project which will link the major rivers in north and south as optimum utilization of water. This is the better way to manage the water from surplus areas to lacking but the project requires huge investment and takes long time. India needs to improve its agriculture by implementing scientific applications in irrigation system like drip, sprinklers and sprayers and also government needs to promote the low cost methods to harvest and conserve the rainwater. There is still great need of research on drought resistant and climate resistant crops, our agriculture scientists must focus on developing such verities, and Africa is the best example for such innovative crops and practices. India must take inspiration from Israel by their customized irrigation methods and reuse of waste water for agriculture.

Most recent US intelligence report says that in next ten years, water is going to be a bargain chip and as a weapon too... growing demand for water leads to wars. As we know... India has been experiencing many international river disputes like Ganges, Sindhu and Brahmaputra linked with other countries of Nepal, Pakistan and China, and inter-state river disputes like Babli, Almatti, Mullaperiyar, Kaveri etc. Privatization in the urban supplies makes more diversion of irrigated water to cities and Industrial purpose. Private corporations like Coke and other bottled water companies are taping the public water and excessive pumping the ground water which caused to water table aquifer fall. Since the available water is limited, allocation of the water to irrigation, domestic and industrial purposes shall be based on proper methodology, otherwise it leads to clashes among the people within India only not with neighboring countries. I don’t wish the quests and crusades for water; let us all together preserve the fresh water.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

When Columbus and his crew encountered the Native Americans inhaling the smoke of burning Tobacco, they introduced the same to Europe and the rest of the world. Tobacco was the first plant exported to a worldwide market from Americas from 1500s and it has been grown by Native Americans for more then 5000 years. Global tobacco Industry sells around 6 trillion cigarettes every year, China is the biggest consumer of cigarettes about 45% of the global total. After China, the ten countries that consume the largest number of cigarettes are Russia, the U.S., Japan, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Ukraine, Turkey, Korea and Italy. India is the second largest producer of tobacco in the world and ITC limited is the pioneer for India’s tobacco crop. India has different types of tobacco verities i.e. Virginia, Burly and native /oriental tobacco. Tobacco board of India is a government organization which involves in regulating the crop and developing the tobacco Industry.

Tobacco is the hungry man’s food, chilly man’s fire, sad man’s cordial, bachelor’s friend, lonely man’s companion, busy man’s repose: it’s a generic complimentary statement by tobacco lovers. Matter of fact, Tobacco is responsible for 1 in 10 adult deaths and it kills more than 5 million people per year. The World Health Organization warned that if the same consumption patterns continue, more than 8 million people will die per year by 2030. Smoking tobacco is a fatal addiction; it keeps the life at risk…. not only the one who is smoking but also every one around. Everybody has the same questions, why farmers are growing tobacco even that is harm for human health and why governments are allowing tobacco cultivation even lot of health organizations and social groups advocating a ban on tobacco smoking.

Smoking is a social problem; the problem should be dealt with public awareness. But tobacco cultivation is a part of farming system; it is legally cultivated agriculture crop and globally trading commodity. Tobacco is the best cash crop among all cash crops… in terms of high value returns and suitable to most environments, on top that it’s a labor intensive crop, so it definitely improves the socioeconomic conditions of rural areas and the quality of farmers’ life. Sale of the crop is also assured and it’s sold by negotiable price through government operated auction floors. As per economic surveys, the tobacco farmers monthly income is higher than the non – tobacco farmers. Almost 15 million people are involved in Indian tobacco industry, the tobacco contribution to India’s GNP is about 10%.

Indian tobacco farmers have not influenced by the anti smoking campaigns, neither threaten tobacco cultivation nor promote them to leave the crop. They simply grow the tobacco as a part of the cultivation and more over its high return cash crop.In spite of Indian government has been implementing ban on smoking in public places and a ban on underage sales, tobacco consumption and production has been increasing. The consumption pattern in India is: 85% share goes to tobacco products like Bidi, Snuff and chewing and rest of 15% is cigarettes consumption. Despite the just 15% cigarette consumption generates 75% of taxable tobacco revenue and 25% from the other forms of tobacco products which is 85% market share, since the taxes are more on cigarettes comparatively on traditional tobacco products. Major Indian tobacco market is occupied by traditional products which are unorganized sector and cottage industries, so the government authorities are difficult to enforce the taxes on them.

As per my understanding, young &urban population is consuming the cigarettes and adults & rural population is consuming non-cigarette form of tobacco products and worldwide the non – cigarette form of consumption has been increasing. Tobacco consumption is dangerous to health; no one is going to deny that but the government should educate the citizens about the risk factors and at the same time it should make the Indian tobacco farmers more competitive to garner the major share in world market. The government should protect the poor farmers’ interests and economic strength of the country; we need lot R&D in tobacco in the direction of low –nicotine and organic tobacco crops. The taxes on cigarettes should not be increased because the consumption pattern will be shifted to non- cigarette form which is more harmful to health. I hope they won’t increase in coming budget.

About Me

I have a dream that the farmers shall be treated as entrepreneurs and knowledgeable workers. Farmers shall be respected as most Valuable citizens of the earth. I would like to achieve my vision by working for agriculture,food and economy.